Establishing Best Practices for Photogrammetric Recording During Archaeological Fieldwork

ABSTRACT

Archaeologists have recently embraced photogrammetry as a low-cost, efficient tool for recording archaeological artifacts, active excavation contexts, and architectural remains. However, no consensus has yet been reached about standard procedures for reliable and metrically accurate photogrammetric recording. The archaeological literature describes diverse equipment and approaches to photogrammetry. The purpose of this article is to open a discussion about when and how photogrammetry should be employed in archaeology in an effort to establish “best practices” for this new method. We focus on the integration of photogrammetry within a comprehensible research plan, the selection of equipment, the appropriate apportionment of labor and time on site, and a rubric for site photography that is conducive to successful and efficient modeling. We conclude that photogrammetric modeling will soon become an indispensable tool in most archaeological applications but should always be implemented in ways that do not place undue burdens on project personnel and budgets and that aid research goals in well-defined ways.

KEYWORDS:

• Photogrammetry
• research design
• accuracy
• efficiency
• best practices

Acknowledgments

The research projects described here were funded by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, its Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, the School of Art, Art History & Design, the Department of Classics and Religious Studies, and the Hixson–Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts. The authors wish to thank Sylvian Fachard (Senior Research Associate, University of Geneva), Alex Knodell (Assistant Professor, Carleton College), Kalliopi Papangeli (Senior Archaeologist, Ephorate of Antiquities of West Attica, Piraeus, and the Islands), Reinhard Senff (Director, Olympia Excavations), Georgia Chatzi-Spiliopoulou (now retired from the 7th Ephorate), Alexander Fantalkin (Tel Aviv University), David Scahill (American School of Classical Studies at Athens), the Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece (ESAG), the Ephorate of Antiquities of West Attica, Piraeus and the Islands, the 7th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, and the Israel Antiquities Authority, for permitting and organizing photogrammetric work at the Mazi Archaeological Project (MAP), the Digital Architecture Project (DAP) at Olympia, and the Ashdod-Yam Excavations. We also thank the Loeb Classical Library foundation, the Swiss National Science Foundation, Carleton College, and the University of Geneva for their support of MAP.

Notes on contributors

Philip Sapirstein (Ph.D. 2008, Cornell University) is Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. His interests include Mediterranean art and architecture, Greek architecture, ceramics, Greeks and the East, and 3D recording technologies.

Sarah Murray (Ph.D. 2013, Stanford University) is Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Her interests include Bronze and Early Iron Age Greece, ancient economies and trade, and GIS/spatial analysis.